Who's That Chick?, David Guetta featuring Rihanna: Latest hit from Grammy-winning French house producer and Barbadian superstar.

Source: MCM

France's top TV

The most-watched programme in France last week was long-running CBS series Criminal Minds (Esprits Criminels in French), which follows the fictional activities of FBI profilers. Aired on TF1, France's main commercial channel, it won 27% of the audience.

Encouragingly, the second most popular show, with a 12% share, was the first part of a home-produced drama series for France 2, the main national public service broadcaster. Les beaux mecs (Handsome lads, roughly) is a story of two jailbreakers: Tony, a veteran mobster, and Kenz, a younger, small-time hood. Loathing each other at first, the two are drawn together in a tale of betrayal and revenge dating back to Tony's youth.

Third was France's answer to Kirstie Allsopp, Stéphane Plaza, an irrepressible estate agent with a chirpy patter and advice on how to flog your house (Maison à vendre, on commercial channel M6), and fourth was an episode of Des racines et des ailes, a popular travel documentary on state-owned Frace 3 that explores the hidden treasures of France; in this instance Corsica. Fifth with a 4% audience share was a live gig by popular stand-up comedian Gad Elmaleh.

Generally, the French-language versions of familiar reality show formats fare well in France, as – for some reason – do three-hour Saturday-night variety shows starring famous faces from the 80s.